Tiki Bars
Tiki Bob's - at the Capitol Inn - Sacramento
West Sacramento, California, United States (Closed)
Bob Bryant and Earl Erwin opened this restaurant, often referred to as Tiki Bob's II, on October 24th, 1957 in the Capitol Inn Hotel, Sacramento. Supposedly, Erwin's wife was tired of driving to San Francisco to visit the first Tiki Bob's incarnation, so Erwin brought Tiki Bob's to Sacramento.
In addition to the South Seas Room, this location also had a Carribean, Pacifica, and Gold Room.
Back Home in Lahaina
Carson, California, United States
Opened in 1998.
This restaurant serves Hawaiian style comfort food.
They do not serve tiki/tropical cocktails (beer & wine only) and the decor is minimal. They have some beach scene wallpaper murals and a small carved tiki at the front check-in stand which has a small thatched roof.
The focus is more on the food than the atmosphere, but the food appears to be very good and authentic Hawaiian style.
There was also a second version in Manhattan Beach, CA that ran from 2002-2013.
Cheeki Tiki Bar
Cala d Or, Spain
The Cheeki Tiki Bar in Cala d'Or is mostly outdoor but there is also room inside. You will be entertained by some parrots in a chilled atmosphere surrounded by nice decor. It is a classic Tiki bar with a lot of bamboo but green and blue lights keep it bright. Cocktails are pretty good and they come in mugs from Spanish production.
*NOTE: Only open in summer season.
Mabu-Hay
Cala d'Or, Spain
Opened in 1982.
Mabu-Hay has both indoor and outdoor seating with plenty of rattan & bamboo furniture and decor. The interior is dark and moody as classic tiki bars tend to be, but if you want to sit outside on the patio/lanai and people watch, you can do that as well. They appear to have cocktails served in both vessels by Porcelanas Pavon as well as some of their own ceramic creations. There is a large moai out front and several other standing tikis throughout, that appear to be sculpted, rather than carved (perhaps out of concrete or fiberglass or some other material).
Jube
Cádiz, Spain (Closed)
Opened in 1977.
El Jube was a cocktail pub located in the old "U", in front of the "La Laguna" Health Center.
It was a calm and exotic place, jungle-like, with hanging plants everywhere, branches on the ceilings, fruits, and, a small fountain in the center, with a waterfall included, and two parakeets in a cage.
At the entrance there was a container with peanuts so that you could feed the birds.
At one point, they also had at least one monkey -- Arturo, whose owner from time to time took him for a walk around the block of the premises.
Toward the end of its life, the owners tried to convert the theme into a western/cowboy atmosphere, which many found quite jarring given its history.
The pub closed in November 2017, just as it was about to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Wusong Road
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
This restaurant took over the space previously occupied by Les Sablons and has been slowly rolling open since late December 2021, starting with the upstairs tiki bar. The downstairs section, which is focusing on affordable Hong Kong deli-style rice plates to start, debuted February 1, 2022 in time to ring in the Lunar New Year.
From the Wusong Road Website:
"Hidden away in the historic 100 year old Conductors Building on the outskirts of Harvard Square. Wusong Road is named after the first Conductors building located in Wusong China. Located in the outskirts of Harvard Square, Wusong Road tells the culinary love story about classical Asian American cuisine and tropical Tiki escapism that was central to Cambridge Massachusetts. With food crafted by Chef owner Jason Doo, guest experience by owner Kaila Fong and our beverage program by Justin Crooks and Charlie 'Rocco' Napoli, we hope you will join us for an escape from the hustle and bustle of Cambridge city life.
The team behind Wusong Road (Jason Doo, Thomas Brush, Kaila Fong, and Charlie Napoli) renovated the abandoned conductors building during the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020. The conductors building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 27, 1988.
The team behind Wusong Road with the help of architects Analogue Studio, master craftsman Thomas Morgan (Morgan Construction) and Frank Simotics (Tiki Rancher) beautifully converted the once French Restaurant interior and converted the second story into a tropical Tiki escape."
Flamingo's Tiki Bar
Cairns City, Queensland, Australia
Opened December 1st, 2018.
Flamingo's Tiki Bar operates from the basement at the Pacific Hotel (below Bushfire Flame Grill) on the Esplanade in the long-vacant site of a former bottleshop. It is a very small bar with only a 35 person capacity. Billing themselves as a "modern interpretation of tiki", this bar is brightly lit with tropical prints, palm trees, bamboo, hula girls wallpaper, and neon signs. It has more of a Miami feel than a dark and traditional Trader Vics vibe. They do have a serious rum collection (over 150 labels), but a light-hearted approach to serving their cocktails. They serve some drinks in tiki mugs but others are served in glassware with miniature pool blow-up flamingo coasters/huggies.
Dug's West Indies
Carson City, Nevada, United States (Closed)
This location was opened by Captain Dug Picking in the 1960s. A former Merchant Marine, Captain Dug found himself landlocked in Carson City and established a tiki bar serving Polynesian food and tropical drinks.
The restaurant was decorated with tikis and sailing paraphernalia: fishing nets, ropes, anchors, nautical flags, seashells. It boasted a “Shark-Infested Men’s Room.”
The following is from a former employee and was posted on Tiki Central:
"Dug would address all adult males as, 'Governor'.
He loved telling stories to the clientele, and I remember them bellying-up to the bar just to hear a good story. I never heard him repeat one. He did have a little fun with the tipsy, 'know-it-all' clientele: he kept a bridge compass near the middle of the bar area and a nautical map behind the counter. He would bait and bet the uninitiated by telling him that Carson City was farther West than Los Angeles. (He explained to me later that, since Los Angeles is actually on the Pacific and Carson City is east of the Sierras, we create a spatial error. After a few flabbergasting moments, out would come that map and the incredulous client would have to buy rounds.
He said that he and Victor Bergeron went 'way back,' and told ever-growing, ever more embellished stories of their years of carousing and drinking their way around the Pacific Rim, and how he got the best of Victor sometimes and sometimes not.
I got to watch Dug earning his fame with his 'Blue Mai Tai,' from-scratch Pina Coladas, grogs and flourish drinks (he cheerfully did five and seven-layered Pousse cafes on-demand.) He didn’t water-down or scrimp on anything for the guests. Nothing in the place was inexpensive, and, conversely, nothing was cheap. …except for the endless tape loop of Hawaiian music that he had wafting through the place every night."
Starting in 1974, Dug also created a series of liquor decanters themed after Nevada brothels. These decanters have turned out to be very popular with collectors. At least a couple of the decanters focused on Dug's West Indies for the first two years (a clipper ship design the first year in '74 and a sailboat with man and woman the second year in '75).
This location was sold by Dug in the late 70s or early 80s because of financial problems brought about because of his investment in another location that failed -- the Windjammer.
Dug's West Indies persevered for a time as just "The West Indies" but it eventually closed. Today the site is home to a Burger King fast food restaurant.
Lanai Room - La Playa Hotel
Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States (Closed)
The La Playa Hotel started out as a stone mansion in 1905 and was later turned into a 20-room hotel in the 1920s.
It was rebuilt and added to several times, first in 1925, and most significantly in 1940, when designer Jon Konigshofer did a major Spanish Revival-style remodel and expanded it to 80 rooms with a terrace dining room overlooking Carmel Bay.
In 1952, the hotel obtained its liquor license and Konigshofer designed the Lanai Room cocktail lounge.
It is unclear when the Lanai Room was closed and there have been several changes in ownership since.
Surf N Shack
Capitola, California, United States (Closed)
Opened around 2007.
Surf N Shack mostly specialized in surf and skate apparel, but they also had a good selection of tiki mugs from Tiki Farm.
In 2009, Surf N Shack's owner, Ray Apolskis, donated a tiki carved by local carver Jason Rimmer to replace one that had been stolen from nearby Capitola Beach.
Closed around November 2020.
Mt. Fuji Inn and Mai Tai Lounge
Omaha, Nebraska, United States (Closed)
California native and self-taught cook Tsutomu “Jack” Kaya moved to Omaha after war’s end, and in 1947 opened his first restaurant, the Grass Shack Cafe. In 1965, Jack and wife Alice opened the Mt Fuji Inn, Omaha's first Japanese restaurant; the cuisine on offer spanning from Japanese to Cantonese to American.
After the loss of the restaurant by fire in 1969, the Mt Fuji Inn re-opened in a new, larger location that afforded the addition of a dedicated cocktail bar on the lower level. While the main restaurant was a pretty standard affair, the Mai Tai Lounge was a dimly lit drinkery decorated with port holes, black velvet paintings, fish tanks, bamboo over the bar and Orchids of Hawaii beachcomber lamps. There were a few other tiki touches including tiki door pulls and a tall tiki pole at the entrance.
The Mai Tai Lounge boasted a menu of “25 Original Polynesian Cocktails,” including their own spin on classics such as the Zombie, Fogcutter and its namesake Mai Tai, served in customized Mt. Fuji Inn Moai tiki mugs. Throughout the 1970s, occasional live music by such acts as “Big Al” Kaulia and The Kanakas played the “sounds of the islands.”
A family business to the end, the Mt Fuji Inn and Mai Tai Lounge closed in October 2017.